Title: Captain Marvel
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Lashana Lynch
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins

What It Is: Vers (Larson) is a warrior in the Kree army. She is trained to defend the Kree against their nemesis the Skrull. When she’s shot out of the sky and lands on planet C-53 she’s right smack dab on our Earth. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Fury (Jackson) stumble on to her and discover that she may just be more than she appears. It turns out that this is true. That she is originally an Earth woman named Carol Danvers, a former pilot who disappeared previously.

What We Think: Marvel continues to skate on reputation alone. Narratively speaking the first half of this film is for lack of a better term…boring. Throughout the entirety of the film, I couldn’t help but think to myself just how boring this was. Brie Larson has literally nothing to work with in this script.  She does her absolute best. She’s quite electric as Danvers. Ben Mendelsohn is also quite good. To me, he steals the show. When discussing the CGI it just isn’t consistent. At points, it looks okay and others it simply an utter mess.

Our Grade: C-, Following two relative disappointments from the previous two Marvel films all this had to do was be okay. Sadly it’s below okay and sadly it doesn’t maintain momentum because it never gets any. A normally strong actress is lost in a shuffle of overblown fluff and over told story. I can’t give a huge recommendation to this. Sadly, it just all falls to the wayside in order to deliver a message that, while important is far FAR too heavy-handed. For better Brie check out Room and for better from Boden and Fleck look to Half Nelson and It’s Kind of Funny That Way and OF COURSE the grossly underseen gem (and a personal favorite) Mississippi Grind. This is another disappointment. We’ll see how Avengers: Endgame goes.